Ayano and Enishi
by MelancholyBite
Summary: Ayano is irregular, and she's trying to save herself. But what if she needs someone to save her instead?


**Chapter 1**

Ever since I was young, I was never really one for making friends. Maybe it's because I never really wanted to. I always projected myself as a gloomy girl, who never talked, just listened. I stared, and I think classmates found me odd, maybe even a bit creepy as well. Rumors started to float around. People started to ignore me. I was only in preschool.

From then on, people continued to ignore me. On rare occasion, I was picked on. I was the "girl with the gloomy aura". And I wanted to keep it that way. I didn't want to attract attention. I never spoke unless I was spoken to. I walked to school everyday from our farm, and walked back in the scorching sun. Atleast I had time to think.

My mother raised me this way. My father left after I was born. My mother idolized him, despite being cast away by him. I hated her in a way. She barely spoke to me, yet she continued to idolize my father, who abandoned us. I always wondered why she pined after him who was gone and never paid any attention to I, who was there. We lived in a quiet farm surrounded by an orchard in the village, where the most luscious of cherries grew on trees and the most abundant wildlife that anyone would ever see roamed. My mother always sat under the biggest cherry tree after making herself a cup of jasmine tea. And she read a book. She was always reading. To be honest, I think my mother was always caught up in fantasies of my father. She said he was different. She said I was different.

Of the few times I was spoken to, one time, my mother's composure broke. She was wild and exciting, but serious at the same time. As she grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me back and forth, she said, "Don't get emotional, daughter. They will find you! Happiness is a curse!" And once again, she was still and silent. Like nothing ever happened. She sauntered back to her tree and read. And she read a little more. And a little more. And she never stopped. She grew old underneath that tree, but I never aged. She was delusional, and because of that, I was enraged.

But I mulled over what she said one day. Emotions. It's like I never really had them. I was a doll, who did what they were told. And carried out their duty with perfection. I never had a perfect life. There were always things I wanted. But honestly, were emotions one of them? I've lived sixteen years of my life like this. Could I take anymore? I'll take time to think. I sat down near our small garden, and laid down. My cheek started to feel wet, a sandpapery tongue licking it with all of its might. I opened my eyes to see Kuro, my black labrador puppy. He was small, and curious, and craved attention. His wide eyes filled with happiness as he began to frolick in the somewhat tall grass. I think he was probably the only thing keeping me alive. He was adorable, after all.

I stroked him in my lap as I mulled over what I was doing, what was going on. Why it was going on. You could say I figured out why I was alive. But I think it was time for some questions.

As per usual, my mother was reading a book under her cherry tree. Her hair had greyed considerably and her face showed few wrinkles. My mother was a beautiful woman. She still is, despite her still seeming aged. "Mother." My voice was soft, as I was not used to speaking at all, especially with my mother. She slowly looked up from her book with a gentle smile on her face.

"I knew you'd come to me one day." She didn't seem overjoyed, but content. It was odd, seeing her like this. "I think… I think you'd want answers. But answers to what? That I do not know." My mother had an uncanny way of seeing what was going to happen. Sometimes she would just close her eyes for a moment, and come back and tell me what I was thinking in my mind out loud.

"I don't know anything about this world." My voice was just slightly stronger now. But I contained myself from raising my voice. "I know nothing about this world, my father, why I can't have emotions. I don't understand any of it." I felt melancholy. Tired. I slowly sunk to the ground in front of my mother. I didn't think I had the energy, will power, or ability to get mad at her, even if it came to that.

She smiled. I swallowed thickly."Daughter you see, your father wasn't exactly what we call a 'normal' person." I felt a bit irked. Something had just occurred to me. Something that slapped me across the face.

"You know mother," I stood up slowly, "in the few times we spoke, never have I once ever heard you call me by my name." I think I was confused and a bit sad. I wondered why I reacted in this way. Little things always made me snap. I guess I felt a bit rejected.

She stayed silent. "Please answer…" I muttered. Again, silence only ensued. So I decided to let it go. After minutes of just staring, my mother proceeded to speak in her feeble little voice. She whispered out a story that was unimaginable. A story about me. How I was born. Why I was so peculiar. You could say she answered all of my questions. Every last one. She talked to me more in one day than in my whole life time. She was crying. I think my eyes started to water a bit. I felt like I had a hole in my chest where my heart should be. Something swelled up inside of me, until finally, I started crying as well. Was this sadness? If it was, I never want to feel it again. Sadness was blue. But not the kind of blue that the sea is. A different kind of blue. Blue like the sky when it rains. A dampened blue grey that had threatened my very life once, and come back again to threaten me once more.

My mother was started to see me cry. She told me to stop. She almost screamed. But there was no use. In front of me, a small flame sprung to life. A frame that spread in the dry wild grass. I leapt up, tears still dripping down my face ever so often. I grabbed Kuro by his collar and lifted him. I ran into the barn. The least bright idea I had. The flames were spreading. Everything was on fire. I couldn't see my mother anymore. I coughed into the inside of my elbow and held Kuro tight against me as I fumbled for the exit in the smoke. The sides of the barn collapsed. I heard the wailing of all the animals.

The color of the flames was a deep blue, the color of sadness. My mother never once called my name, she was silent. I muttered, "My name is Ayano." And I kneeled to the ground weeping.


End file.
